Channa Zoiberblat and her family

Channa Zoiberblat and her family

The family of my father's sister Channa Zoiberblat. Channa holding her younger son (cannot recall his name) is standing. To the left is her husband Nochim Zoiberblat and their children: Yankl and Esther. The picture was made in Zagare in 1941.

My grandmother Mina gave birth to 11 children, out of whom 9 grew up and two died in infancy. Children were born almost every year. When grandpa was alive the family scraped through somehow. When he died in 1930, grandma had to earn for a living. She started selling fish. She and her sons Rubim and my father Leibl went to Klaipeda, Latvia to buy fish and sell it afterwards on our market. When she ran out of money, she borrowed it from people and paid back after her next trip.

My father Leibl Beitler was the eldest in the family. He was born in 1909. Then in 1910 Channa was born. She was as beautiful as grandmother Mina. Channa married a worker from Siaulia Zoiberblat and lived with him in Siaulia. Her husband was an underground communist. He was imprisoned for several times due to his communistic activity before the Soviets came in the Baltic countries. Channa had three kids- Yankle and Ester were my age and the youngest boy was born shortly before the outbreak of Great Patriotic War. During the first day Channa and her husband left Siaulia and her husband was a Jew and a communist, so he had to run away from fascists. They reached Latvian border in Joniskis. There were first Lithuanian nationalists, who shut the border and did no let them pass. They were executed on the first day of occupation in Joniskis together with other Jews and activists.

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